Tag: surf

Ignoring something doesn’t help make the world a better place and according to a Buddhist teaching I listened to, I now understand the difference between non violence and non action.

For a long time, I thought the best position to take was that of no comment. Not because I didn’t have an opinion, but because I hated confrontation. Then one day, while I was talking to my boyfriend who quite often brings up controversial topics, I took my usual neutral position to which he grew flustered and basically said, that I couldn’t continue to ignore everything. At that moment, it occurred to me that having no position isn’t necessarily the best way to be because people just assume that you live in a bubble and aren’t aware or don’t concern yourself with what is going on. When that was in fact, so far from the truth because I care, actually, I care a lot.

Is there a karmic result for not helping a situation?

When I work on some photo editing, quite often, I listen to either music or something spiritual depending on what I need most that day. On this particular day, I listened to a spiritual talk called ” the karmic result of not helping a situation“. Referring to many countries who are experiencing countless atrocities and being forced to flee their lands or convert to whatever the hostile side is demanding; one of the audience members asked the speaker, “How can someone who’s ongoing nature and path is to peaceful, avoid being involved in controversial situations whatever scale they may be? “. “Is the answer to run away to avoid it? “

Doing nothing to avoid conflict isn’t always the answer.

When I heard the response, it was as if another window was opened along the road to my spiritual path. If you don’t stand for something, you will always be running. Ignoring a situation that hurts others with the mentality that it’s not affecting you will almost guarantee you the karmic result of that same issue being at your doorstep one day. I think it’s fair to say that in the most basic general way, every person deserves a chance at happiness. When that chance is taken away from someone, we all become at risk of it being taken from us.

So, although the speaker did not encourage violence, he also did not encourage passivity.

I could not even begin to suggest solutions in such horrific situations and I do not think there is any one solution to finding ways to help a situation like that but I certainly think about it often.

In our own daily lives, just being an advocate for compassion can take a tiny bit of anger out of a conversation and create the scenario for a more open mind. As we all know, the result of these hostile situations has created a domino effect in the migration of millions of displaced families to our own lands. How would you feel if you were in the shoes of those families. I personally cannot imagine.

So my big lesson that day was not to always avoid conflict for fear of confrontation but instead to be courageous and risk adversity and hope that in the very least, with having done my own research, I can properly support my position and be respected for at least having one. xo

When I first heard this statement, I thought, what? and how? Buddhist philosophy teaches you to be compassionate, to have empathy and to live your life in a virtuous, kind way, only wishing and bestowing the best on others. I’m sure at the root of most religions the true lesson is the same. However, Buddhism also teaches us to detach from results and have no expectations. So, if you are like me, this is a very hard lesson to learn. How do you balance caring for someone but not being affected by them when you feel like they have let you down. This has probably been my hardest challenge.

It’s certainly not an easy thing to do. The other day, I was reading a story about a very well known actor who said he suffers from depression. He said his issue is that he has a lot of empathy for others and finds himself immersed unwittingly in their issues and feels overwhelmed by their sadness. How awful 🙁 He said he over analyzes everything and this mentally wares him down. Sound familiar? Similar to my last blog post, the quote I heard a few weeks ago helped me put this whole scenario in a bit of perspective. This is no easy task especially for someone who suffers from clinical depression but every little bit helps. Post this sticky someplace where you can see it!

” Learn to separate the mind from the difficulty that surrounds it” .

This is something I have to practice every day so that I can stay focused and determined. I love how there are hidden answers (or maybe not so hidden) to our concerns and issues all around us, we only need to be present and aware and find that motivation to be better. xo

Above are some images I took this past weekend at St. Augustine beach while my bf was playing in a volleyball tournament. Thanks to my anonymous models 🙂 xo

How incredibly paralyzing is the statement, “What’s mean to be is what’s meant to be“? When I hear someone say that, what I hear is, I don’t deserve to get what I want or worse, I’m too afraid to go after what I want, and so, I’ll just be complacent and hope no one notices. I will tell everyone that I actually believe I have no control over my fate and I hope they believe it because the thought of taking fate into my own hands terrifies me. Sound familiar? The next time you hear someone say that, you be sure to tell them….

Nothing is meant to be, you make it be, your fate is not scribbled on some ledger. Don’t accept patterns in your life that make you unhappy. And don’t settle for living vicariously through other peoples happy lives.

Find the strength to go through the ugly moments when you feel alone, hopeless and you feel like maybe you took things one step too far,…it’s when you get over that summit, that you realize that you have been settling this whole time and you will kick yourself for not taking charge sooner. When you embark on the unknown, there is always fear, that is perfectly normal, but don’t let fear stop you.

No one is born perfect, we all have strengths and weaknesses, but the question is, what are you doing with what you got?

Photo’s above are a bunch of random pictures I took at this beach this past weekend! I’m officially a creeper at the beach with my zoom lens :-p

A couple of weekends ago was a warm one here for us. I was able to go out to the ocean and spend some time shooting the waves. After every couple of shots, I would examine my progress and see if my camera focused in on a good part of the wave. I can’t tell this immediately because I usually crouch down really low and shoot straight into the ocean, without really seeing what I am shooting. Sometimes, this is a complete failure, but sometimes, it’s a wonderful surprise. Actually, I shouldn’t say it’s a complete failure because without those failures, the successes wouldn’t feel as good and I would not be as inspired to continue striving for a better picture.

At times, there are people around which at first used to make me a bit shy but I am getting better at phasing my surroundings out. I understand that their curiosity gets the best of them sometimes and I hear giggles, which would have really bothered me a few years ago, but now, I just smile to myself when I hear it and carry on. As I shoot, I remind myself to really try to absorb the moment, enjoy it, look around, think it through and try a new way of shooting.

That night as I lay in bed thinking of the millions of things I want to do in the future, just as I do every night, it occurred to me that I shouldn’t get ahead of myself. I sometimes try to pack my head and consequently my days with so many ideas and goals that I don’t allow myself to enjoy what is happening right now. As a result, it creates anxiety within me, which is not pleasant for me or for anyone around me. I thought to myself, how can I be more positive and appreciative of the moment.

Less is more. When I think back, for much of my life, I had the mentality of fitting in as much as possible but what I realize now is that when I had 4 distinctive plans in one day, I barely remembered what happened with each friend or event. I was so busy trying to be busy that I wasn’t absorbing the time spent at these events or with the people. I now believe this is essential in having a continuous happy life, i.e., taking the time, as they say, “to smell the roses“.

When I got home that day after shooting at the beach, I reviewed about 50 shots of just the ocean waves. I carefully reviewed them, examined the colors, the depth, and I really allowed the joy that shooting nature gives me to fill me up and I found myself feeling gitty.

I heard this simile regarding this same idea. It related the process of enjoying the moment to developing a photograph via the old fashioned process of utilizing Polaroids. in the 1920’s Polaroid photographs were produced by instant cameras and were developed in a dark room by placing the film in a series of developer liquids, then allowing the images to dry in the dark room. The best photographs were the ones that you took your time with and allowed to fully absorb the chemical process. These photo’s were the ones that truly absorbed the potential of the image. These photographs were the brightest, the most clear, the most rich. I remember my dad had a Polaroid Camera when I was a child. It was really quite exciting but I do recall there was a waiting period to see the final picture and any premature touching would disrupt the process.

The slower you go, the deeper you feel. So for the past two weeks and now as a daily process, I remind myself to smell the ocean air, to listen to the waves, to feel the sand, the sunshine, the rain, the grass, the laughter, to listen to the kindness and let it touch me, to really listen to my friends, to take the time to feel the fur of the kitties roaming my community, to smell the food I’m cooking, to smell my boyfriends cologne while he is sitting next to me, to laugh at his jokes and most importantly to ignore anything around me that tries to steal my peace.

I used to feel incredibly guilty about taking a nap on a beautiful day or simply taking some time to do absolutely nothing. I have the wisdom and the confidence now to understand that when I feel guilty, I am identifying with negative thoughts instead of my potential. The truth is, it’s in those “nothing” moments that the greatest ideas come to me. When I crave a nap, I realize it is because my mind needs a refresh and that is a good thing and it’s also important that I listen to it. The images above were taken at East Beach on the island.

Below I got a big creative and turned our ocean into a Turquoise Caribbean sea, just for fun!